Hong Kong-based smartphone maker Infinix entered the Indian market earlier this year with the launch of Infinix Hot 4 Pro and Note 4. Just last month, the company introduced its latest device, dubbed as the Infinix Zero 5 in India.

The Infinix Zero 5 is priced in India at Rs. 17,999 and is placed in the highly competitive mid-range segment in India. The company during the launch had highlighted its features like the big battery, dual-rear cameras, and an enhanced selfie camera. We have been spending some time with Infinix Zero 5 and here is our review of the phone.

Physical Overview

If we talk about design, the Infinix Zero 5 sports a metal unibody design and has chamfered edges around the frame. It is a big phone and its 6-inch display might seem difficult for one hand usage at first but when you use the phone for a week, you get used to the size and compact design.

The glass up front with the chamfered edges featuring a metal back feels premium and has good build quality. With on-screen navigation button, there is a space left at the bottom for bezels which could be minimized to give it a more premium look.

The back panel with a textured strip features a dual-camera setup and a LED flash. There is a fingerprint sensor placed below this module, which is easy to reach when holding the device with one hand.

There is a USB Type-C port, speaker grille and a 3.5mm audio jack at the bottom.

The power button, volume rockers, and SIM card slot are on the right side and there is a dedicated microSD card slot on the left.

At a time when bezel-less displays are becoming a trend in the mid-range segment, the Zero 5’s design may seem obsolete and its 6-inch display might be too big for some users.

Display

One of the noticeable features of the Zero 5, is its 5.98-inch full HD (1080×1920 pixels) display. The bigger display comes with its perks, you can enjoy multimedia content with its bright and vivid colors. It does offer good content in all the viewing angles. Even in sunlight, the Zero 5’s display gives sharp results.

Camera

The Infinix Zero 5 packs a dual rear camera set up with a 12MP wide angle lens and a 13MP telephoto lens. The images clicked on the device are average. We noticed that the images had some problem with detailing and we also noticed some oversaturation.

There is a portrait mode which offers bokeh shots, which are just average in terms of quality. While using portrait mode the device struggles to focus and there are some issues with blurring. It also allows refocusing after clicking a photo. Further, there’s a 2x optical zoom feature that you may find useful, but do note it gives grainy shots.

Overall, in daylight, the camera clicks decent pictures, but it disappoints when lighting conditions are not good. There is a bit of graininess in the photos in low light conditions, and there’s a lack of detailing and sharpness also.

On the front, there is a 16MP camera which also comes with bokeh mode. The selfies sometimes look overexposed in the bokeh mode. The phone uses software to create artificial blurring in selfies, however, it is not impressive and struggles in focusing on the object.

Camera Samples

Daylight Portrait

Daylight Auto

Daylight Bokeh

Low Light

2x Optical Zoom

Low Light

Low Light

Artificial Light

Daylight Selfie

Lowlight selfie

Artificial light selfie

Daylight selfie Bokeh Mode

Hardware Performance

The phone is powered by a MediaTek processor which can make many of us a bit skeptical about the Infinix Zero 5’s performance. However, the octa-core MediaTek Helio P25 processor clocked a 2.6 GHz clubbed with the 6GB RAM quite easily manages to perform well in all extensive tasks.

We played quite a few graphic intensive games on the Zero 5 and it managed to operate without any lag. Games like Asphalt 8: Airborne and Modern Combat 5 were running smoothly and the phone doesn’t heat up.

In our benchmark testing, the Infinix Zero 5 also showed good results. On Geekbench, it got a score of 814 and 3780 on single and multicore respectively and on AnTuTu it recorded a score of 65198.

Software

The Infinix Zero 5 runs on the company’s Hummingbird XOS 3.0 based on Android 7.0 Nougat. The UI is pretty simple and works quite well, however, there is bloatware that you cannot remove. There is an app Freezer which can remove apps without actually deleting them and these can be unfrozen with just a tap.

There are more such apps like XTreme for themes and wallpapers, XShare for file sharing and XHide which lets you hide apps and pictures. Even if you don’t want to use these apps, you can’t remove them. So, those who prefer the stock Android experience, might find the UI and these apps a little bit annoying.

Battery

The Infinix Zero 5 has a massive 4,350mAh battery and the it easily lasts for a day on a single charge. The device also comes with the XCharge app which enables fast charging. Still, the device takes about two hours to get fully charged.

Verdict

Coming to the conclusion, the good display, the long-lasting battery and above average performance make Infinix Zero 5 a worthy contender in the mid-range price segment. However, in the Rs. 20,000 price segment, we all expect a really good camera, and there are many OEMs that do offer better features when it comes to the camera, so Infinix could have been better in this area.

Another thing is brand recognition, the Infinix Zero 5 could be a good option if the brand were popular in India. So, it might take some time to overcome that. Overall, given the device’s price of Rs. 17,999, the phone is not highly recommendable because there are better options in this price range.